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On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

The assault on the farming community of Marjah in Helmand province,
known as Operation Moshtarak (Together), has made sweeping progress in
the last 24 hours. The Afghan army said in a statement reported by the
BBC that as much as 70 percent of the city has been seized by U.S., NATO
and Afghan forces.

Concerns about intense, coordinated resistance have proven unfounded so
far, and as the operation continues to make progress, the likelihood of
a coordinated pushback will continue to diminish. The air assault and
insertion of infantry units by helicopter directly into the heart of the
town may have not been anticipated by the Taliban fighters there, and
the most hardened nodes of resistance may have been taken out early by
special forces inserted from the south. In the next 48 hours, we
anticipate insurgents taking up more defensive positions and staging
fewer hit-and-run attacks, as the areas for insurgents to flee are fast
diminishing.

Marjah Feb. 14 update map
(click here to enlarge image)

The U.S.-led offensive has continued to proceed south as routes have
been cleared. Engineers have been successfully detonating IEDs without
incident. Controlled detonations occurred throughout the day.

Two armored-vehicle launched bridges have been deployed and hand-carried
bridges have also been used to avoid key choke-points created by the
extensive network of canals. Some 56 canal crossings and intersections,
mostly to the northeast of Marjah and southwest of Nad Ali, have
reportedly been secured, allowing the forward advance of the Marine
offensive.

Special Topic Page
* Obama's Afghanistan Challenge
Related Links
* Pakistan: The Emergence of a New Approach to Afghanistan
* Obama's Plan and the Key Battleground
* Afghanistan: Status Update
* Afghanistan: The Nature of the Insurgency
* Afghanistan, Pakistan: The Battlespace of the Border
* Strategic Divergence: The War Against the Taliban and the War
Against Al Qaeda

Meanwhile, British forces continue to move into and clear Nad Ali to the
north, while British and Danish forces conducted disrupting operations
to the east.

Commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade Brig. Gen. Larry
Nicholson has ordered his commanders to hold public meetings as soon as
possible. Company Operating Bases are being set up from which
door-to-door patrols will be conducted to search for weapons and
bombmaking materiel. A comprehensive sweep is expected to take five days
and will entail much more dispersed movement by troops, meaning much
more exposure to IEDs.

The clearing operation overall may take as many as 30 days, according to
Brig. Gen. Nicholson, but he expressed "cautious optimism" that it may
be done faster. The pace at which Afghan government officials can be
brought in and the degree to which they can begin to introduce
government administration of a town that has been governed by the
Taliban for some time remains to be seen.

U.S., British, Danish and Afghan National Army casualties have been low.
Three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers have been
reported killed (one American, one British, and the third's nationality
not yet disclosed). Some 30-35 insurgents have been killed in the
assault. Though there have been efforts to avoid civilian casualties,
10-12 Afghan civilians were killed from a pair of errant rockets. Gen.
Stanley McChrystal, the ISAF commander, has since ordered a moratorium
on the high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) until an
investigation is complete, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also
ordered an investigation of the deaths.

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